by Cole Gibsen
He closed his eyes, sucking in a thick, wet breath. “No … Yoshido and others need you … Go to them.” He looked up at her with eyes she had never seen before: young and bright. The next moment he was gone.
Senshi shuddered as the wind of death blew through the room. Her insides convulsed with pain, but she could not allow herself to crumble. A warrior could not break in battle. She clenched her jaw so hard that her teeth ground together. Pain shot along her mouth. She welcomed the distraction. With a deep breath, she turned away from the hysterical house maids and followed the sounds of battle deeper into the mansion.
15
I felt like I was jammed inside a washing machine going through the heavily soiled cycle. Back and forth my world shifted and spun, shaking me so violently that when I finally opened my eyes, I knew I was going to have to make a run for the nearest toilet. I tried to pull myself off the dojo floor before it was too late.
“Whoa, maybe that’s not such a good idea. You should probably take it easy for a bit.”
I looked up at the girl kneeling beside me, recognizing the brown hair that haloed her head in an I-just-stuck-my-finger-in-a-light-socket kinda way. “You’re Michelle Walters, from my biology class.” I should have been surprised to see someone from my school, but getting attacked (again) and passing out (again) dulled my reactions. I felt pretty sure that Justin Timberlake could walk through the door at this point, propose marriage, and I wouldn’t bat an eye.
Her eyes widened. “You know my name? I’ve seen you around school and all, but we’ve never hung out. You hang out with the skaters, right? I didn’t think—”
“A little help?” I interrupted as I pushed up on my elbows. Though she’d lost the scarf, Michelle still wore the white pajamas marking her as one of the three attackers. My mind was so full of questions that it felt dangerously close to exploding, but then again, so did my stomach, and that took priority.
“Oh, sure.” Michelle placed a small, delicate hand on the back of my arm. “I’m sorry, sometimes I ramble when I’m nervous. Do you ever do that?” She snorted and shook her head. “Of course not. What a stupid question, right? I bet—”
“Michelle!” I flinched as my own raised voice beat the back of my eye sockets.
She snapped her jaw shut and made a motion as if sliding a zipper closed over her lips.
“Look,” I clamped a hand against my forehead. “I didn’t mean to yell at you, but my head is killing me and I have to puke.”
“Oh jeez, I forgot about that part.” She reached down and pulled me to my feet. She led me to the bathroom, careful not to let me fall on my gelatin legs.
When the bowl was within reach, I tumbled to my knees and wrapped my arms around the cold tank. Everything I had eaten since this morning came back with a vengeance. My beloved toaster pastries and I were now mortal enemies.
If Michelle felt any anger toward me for the whole knee-in-the-gut thing, she didn’t let it show. For the next five minutes, she pulled my ponytail behind my shoulders and politely flushed the toilet in between my heaving. Even as I reached the point where my stomach was empty but the heaving wouldn’t stop, she placed her hand on my forehead to keep me from falling in, as I barely had the strength to sit up.
“Thank God that’s finally over,” she said when I relaxed my cheek against the plastic seat, too tired to care what might have been there before. She stood up and brushed her pants before pulling several paper towels from the dispenser on the wall. She wet them in the sink and kneeled down beside me, pressing them against the back of my neck. It was bliss.
Several minutes later, when the pulsing in my skull quieted down, I lifted my head, which felt like it weighed fifty pounds, and locked my watery eyes with hers. “Why are you being so nice to me?”
She looked confused. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Um, maybe because you tried to kill me?”
Her laugh was explosive. “Kill you? Are you crazy?”
Apparently. I dug my fingers into my temples, partly to numb the new round of throbbing and partly to keep from strangling Michelle. “I heard Kim tell you to kill me.”
“Oh that.” She rolled her eyes. “He wasn’t serious. It was only a test.”
She had my attention now. I pushed myself away from the toilet and turned to face her, but not before spitting one last time. “A test? What for?”
She stiffened, her brown eyes growing large. “I couldn’t—Kim wouldn’t—it’s just not my place.” She stood, but I grabbed her leg before she could escape.
“Then whose place is it? Kim’s? Because all he’s done so far is lie to me.” I gave her my most exasperated look, which wasn’t too difficult considering how I felt. “Come on, Michelle, I need to know what’s going on.”
She bit her lip and looked longingly over her shoulder at the door. “He really didn’t tell you?”
I rolled my eyes and folded my arms.
She whined softly, settling down on the brown ceramic tile beside me. “I don’t know, Rileigh, I’m not the best at explaining things and this is going to be hard enough for you to understand. I remember when I went through it. Kim tried to explain it to me and I was like, ‘Whoa!’ and then—”
“Michelle,” I growled her name through clenched teeth.
“Right. Sorry.” She took a deep breath. “This is going to sound crazy. Really, really crazy. But I swear it’s the truth.”
That wasn’t a promising beginning, her telling me to be prepared for crazy and not taking into account everything that I had been through. If that was normal to her, I didn’t know that I could handle her definition of crazy.
She studied the ceiling. “How do I start?” She chewed on her lip for a minute before bringing her gaze back to me. “Okay, the four of us: Kim, me, and the two other guys you sparred, Braden and Drew … we have all known each other for a very long time.”
I braced my hands behind me and leaned back. My vision was still blurry. “How long?”
“Five hundred years.”
I rested my head against the wall and sighed. I had come here tonight looking for a way to rid myself of the crazy ruining my nice, normal life. I was given a sword, lied to, and forced to defend myself against three armed attackers. And did I get the answers and help that I wanted? No, I got more crazy. I sighed again.
“I know how it sounds,” Michelle continued. “When Kim saw you on the news last week, he recognized something in the way you fought. You reminded him of someone he knew and it got us all excited. You see, we’ve been looking for this person for quite a while.” She turned her attention to the soap dispenser hanging over my head.
“And?” I prompted.
“We believe you are the one we have been looking for,” Kim answered as he stepped into the small bathroom, this time wearing a T-shirt and tennis shoes with his black pants. Either he had been listening outside the door or he had great timing.
I had too many questions to count, but the bile in the back of my throat kept them from forming on my tongue. Instead, I stood on wobbling legs, ignoring Michelle’s offered hand, and rinsed my mouth out at the sink. I finished by splashing cold water on my face. The icy sting assured me I was not dreaming.
I turned to face Kim first. “Is that why you called me Senshi?”
He nodded but added nothing.
Michelle huffed and gave Kim an exasperated look. “Senshi was one of us—a samurai.”
He exhaled sharply, slumping his shoulders in defeat. “Yes. You remind me of her. The way you fight, and other things … ” I watched his eyes dull as his memories pulled him inside himself. “Please forgive me for calling you that; I was just caught up in the moment. We won’t know anything for sure unless you transcend.”
Before I could ask what that meant, Michelle climbed to her feet. “Rileigh, why don’t you join us in the break room? I’ll make a pot of coffee, and we can sit. It’ll be a lot more comfortable than discussing things here.”
I leaned against the sink for
support. Of course they wanted me to follow them into another room. Because it worked out so well for me last time. “I’m not going anywhere with you guys. I’ve already been lied to once. How do I know you’re not going to lure me into another test? Maybe you want to put me in a plane and then have the pilot bail to see if I know how to fly. Or how about giving me a bomb? Maybe I’ll know how to diffuse it!”
Michelle nervously traced a scuff mark on the floor with her toe, but Kim fought off a smile that played along the edges of his mouth.
I couldn’t believe his nerve. “You think this is funny?”
Before he could answer, the door to the bathroom swung in and the boy whose head I’d almost impaled walked in, followed by another guy with a waist-length blond braid that swung behind his back like a rope.
“Is everything all right?” the blond guy asked. He looked just shy of the seven-foot mark, towering above us and making me suddenly aware that I was in a small, windowless bathroom with the only exit blocked. “We heard shouting.”
Michelle answered him. “Rileigh’s still … adjusting.” She turned to me and gestured over her shoulder. “Rileigh, this is Drew.”
The blond giant nodded and gave a weak smile.
“And I’m Braden.” The second guy gave me a lopsided grin as he reached across the room and offered his hand.
I folded my arms across my chest and glared at him.
Braden’s smile withered. “Um, right.” He pulled his hand back and used it to sweep the auburn waves from his face, which immediately fell back over his eyes.
Kim clasped his hands and stared at the ceiling. “I’m sorry that you feel betrayed, Rileigh. I wouldn’t have tricked you unless it was absolutely necessary. You had to believe you were in danger to trigger an awakening.”
I hugged myself tighter. “I don’t understand.”
Kim settled his gaze on me and I fought the urge to flinch under its weight. “Many of us in this world, if not all, have lived before in various times and places. Most live their multiple lives without this realization. Their minds are closed, enabling them to only see what is, not what was. The awakening begins when pieces of your past collide with your present. Your past warrior was first awakened by the danger you felt in the mall parking lot.”
The walls of the bathroom seemed closer than they had moments ago. I sucked in a deep breath to calm myself, but the room felt too small, like there wasn’t enough air. “Let me see if I have this straight—you guys think I’m your reincarnated warrior-friend.”
“Not just a warrior. A samurai,” Braden corrected.
“Whatever,” I snapped. “So you invite me here and attack me in the hopes of drawing the spirit out? Does that sound about right?”
The four of them nodded, as if happy I’d figured it out.
I threw my hands in the air. “Are you insane?”
They stopped nodding. Michelle’s lips parted in surprise, but no sound came out.
“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!” My hands began to tremble and I gripped the sink behind me to keep them steady.
Kim closed his eyes and breathed deeply. “I understand that you skate. But you’ve never done martial arts. Am I correct?”
I nodded, not liking the fact that he obviously knew so much about me.
“Tell me,” he said, “when you fought, first those three men in the parking lot and now here in the dojo, were you not calm? Did the fighting not come naturally to you? Almost like you were possessed?”
I nodded again, but slower this time.
Kim continued. “Then what other explanation is there?”
My knees wobbled. If what Kim said was true and this was a situation that would require more than a prescription of anti-psychotics, then I was in a world of trouble. “Let’s just say for a moment, hypothetically, that you’re right—that there’s a … samurai living inside me, whispering in my head, and taking over my body. Okay, fine. Now let’s move on to what really matters—how do I get rid of it?”
“You can’t.” Kim stepped forward, but halted when I shrank against the sink. “Once an awakening is triggered, there’s no way to stop it.”
“You’re wrong!” He had to be. I had senior year to look forward to, with skate competitions, prom, and graduation. I couldn’t let a dead spirit take all of that away from me—at least not without a fight. “I’ll find a way to get rid of it. And if you won’t help me, I’ll figure out a way to do it on my own!” I blinked back the tears stinging my eyes.
Kim ducked his head and lowered his voice as if he were coaxing a frightened animal out of a corner. “I’m afraid that’s impossible. Because of the test I’ve put you through, you’ve proven that buried inside of you is a powerful warrior. That’s going to make you a target for some very bad people.”
“Like you guys?” I asked.
Kim seemed at a loss for words, so Michelle spoke up. “We would never hurt you, Rileigh. We’re only trying to help.”
I almost laughed. I’d had enough of their help for one night. “You want to help me? You can start by leaving me the hell alone!”
The four of them stared at me in stunned silence.
I marched up to Drew, who stood wide-eyed and frozen in front of the door. “Move!”
“Rileigh, give us another chance,” Michelle begged. “If you’d just let us explain … ”
I shook my head. I needed to get out of here. I felt myself coming apart at the seams, and I wouldn’t let them see me break.
Kim ushered Drew to the corner of the room and pulled the bathroom door open, motioning me to it with a sweep of his arm. “Let her go if that’s what she wants.”
I stared at Kim. Was it going to be that easy?
“We can’t just let her walk out the door,” Braden argued. “She’s in no state to be going anywhere.”
Kim turned on him, snarling. “I said, let her go.”
It was too much. I was on sensory overload. My body felt like it held a Ferris wheel with anger, confusion, and fear spinning round and round, each taking their turn at the top. I couldn’t focus enough to organize my thoughts, so I did the first thing that came to mind.
I ran.
16
Reincarnation? Samurai? The whole thing was crazy.
I turned on the radio in the hopes that the music would distract me from the thoughts swirling around my head. It didn’t. I kept thinking about what Kim had said—how it would be impossible to rid myself of the spirit. He was wrong. If there was a samurai warrior inside of me, then I would find a way to get rid of it.
But first I had to make sure I really was possessed. My fighting skills could still be the result of an adrenaline rush from the unexpected attacks. I wanted to know what would happen if I put myself in danger on purpose.
I thought back to the tired-looking bar nestled between cornfields. When I saw the blinking florescent lights advertising different types of beer from behind smoke-stained windows, I turned off the road and pulled into the gravel lot. There were more than a dozen motorcycles lined up out front. I parked next to them and killed my engine.
My hands gripped the steering wheel so hard my knuckles turned white. “Are you crazy, Rileigh Martin?” I whispered. I guess I was about to find out.
I took a deep breath and exited my car. The key to this experiment was staying calm. If I became scared and triggered an adrenaline rush I’d learn nothing.
Two men dressed in leather vests and black bandanas stood outside the bar smoking cigarettes. They eyed me curiously as I walked past. The first dropped his cigarette to the sidewalk and ground it out with a metal-tipped boot. “Are you lost, darlin’?”
It took me several tries before I could answer. “No. I—uh—I’m looking for someone.”
The man had the name “Dino” embroidered on his vest right under the image of a snake hanging out of an eyeless skull. He gave me the once-over. “Sure you’re looking in the right place?”
I fought the urge to give up on my ex
periment and make a run for it. But I had to know. There was no going back. I swallowed hard. “This is the spot.”
He nodded and held the door out for me, gesturing me in with a sweep of his arm. A haze of smoke and AC/DC’s Back in Black lay beyond.
Immediately the weight of a dozen pairs of eyes pressed against me. No going back, I reminded myself. The bartender, a man with yellow skin and more lines on his face than a digital barcode, stopped pouring a drink and leaned against the bar. “What gives, Dino?”
He shrugged. “Says she’s looking for someone. Are they here, doll face?”
I pretended to scan the room before I shook my head. This was poor planning on my part. How was I supposed to prove whether or not I was possessed? Pick a fight? The idea was so ridiculous I almost laughed.
Dino cocked his head. “You all right?”
If he only knew. I leaned heavily against a barstool, my knees suddenly weak and my throat dry. “This was a mistake,” I answered. “Would it be all right if I got a drink of water before I go?”
The bartender frowned.
“Just give her a drink, eh, Teddy?” Dino said. “Then she’ll be on her way.” He looked at me. “Right?”
“Absolutely.”
Dino nodded at me before walking across the room and joining two men at a pool table. The bar patrons turned back to their beers.
“Here.” The bartended dropped a chipped plastic glass in front of me with enough force that water sloshed over the side. “Drink up, then you’re out of here.”
I climbed the wooden bar stool and took a giant gulp from the glass. That seemed to satisfy the bartender, who went back to pouring beers.
The bar top was sticky and I was careful to keep my arms off it as I sipped my water. My experiment had been a bust. I hadn’t proved anything other than bikers are a lot nicer than I’d assumed. Or so I thought until I felt the lumbering presence behind me.
“Here I am.”
I spun the stool around to find a guy in his late twenties with red-rimmed eyes. I set my glass on the bar. “I’m sorry?”
